Kia ora Riptide! Thank you for your answer! I was starting to think that the forum's completely dead...I'm in the beginning of my Māori learning and I have many "small" questions and I need a place where I can ask them - so I'll do it here Here goes the first one:

Well, to translate the sentence, it roughly translates to "I saw you", where I is the subject of the sentence and you is the object. If you omit the "a" in i kite au i a ia, that would make the you a second subject which is wrong. So basically, the "a" makes the subject pronoun an object pronoun in this case. Here's a good description of how the "a" particle is used in the language: http://kupu.maori.nz/Show.aspx?page=33. Anyways, hope this helps.

Riptide wrote:Well, to translate the sentence, it roughly translates to "I saw you", where I is the subject of the sentence and you is the object. If you omit the "a" in i kite au i a ia, that would make the you a second subject which is wrong. So basically, the "a" makes the subject pronoun an object pronoun in this case. Here's a good description of how the "a" particle is used in the language: http://kupu.maori.nz/Show.aspx?page=33. Anyways, hope this helps.

I kite au i a ia.

In the example above, the preposition marks the object. In Hawaiian, we use the preposition i for regular nouns and iā for pronouns and proper nouns. This a in Hawaiian is the same particle in Māori. If the particle a were not present in the example and was instead, 'I kite au i ia,' we would be treating the pronoun ia as if it were a regular noun. To my understanding, the particle a in Māori is used in the subject position as well to mark proper nouns, and less commonly to mark the pronoun ia when in the subject position. This is similar to the use of the particle ʻo in Hawaiian when marking proper nouns and the pronoun ia in the subject position.

The a referred to in the link in the quote above refers a homonym which is a possessive particle.

Anothet question from me What's the difference (if any) between "tangata" and "tāne"!? As I understand it - both of them mean "man"? I could guess that "tangata" includes both male and female, and "tāne" - only male!? Is that correct!?

Yes, that's practically correct. Well think about it, the word "man" in English refers to a male person as well as a human being. Tangata refers to a human being (better translated as "person") while tāne refers to a male person. Tāne can also refer to a groom or a husband as well.

As you can see with my corrections the first two lines go through a major re-write, the third line is changed from a passive directive to an active one and the last line has been changed from a weak imperative and has been connected with the line above it (that He listens whilst he does so in compassion).

The chorus only needed mai to be added. The effect of it is to give a sense of direction for where His grace should be headed (towards the people singing the song).

Thanks for that. I guess it'd be too much to hope to get a proper translation in the national freaking anthem.

I left New Zealand before they really started giving the options for teaching Maori at school. I'm hoping to come back and actually learn Maori sometime. But right now I'm only picking things up from the internet.

Nooj wrote:Thanks for that. I guess it'd be too much to hope to get a proper translation in the national freaking anthem.

I left New Zealand before they really started giving the options for teaching Maori at school. I'm hoping to come back and actually learn Maori sometime. But right now I'm only picking things up from the internet.

Kei te pai, I see you are living in NSW? If you don't mind me asking, are you of Maori descent as well? I know some non-Maori who are trying to study the language as well over here in Australia so don't give up.

Does anyone know much about the pronunciation of Māori? In listening to the recordings of Te Hū o Moho I have noticed what seem like some allophones I haven't seen mentioned anywhere. Specifically, I've noticed that /k/ sounds like /q/ before back vowels, and /t/ before non-back vowels sounds somewhat like /tʃ/, or maybe /ts̺/ which is Basque's <ts>. Are these accurate, or is this another case of me hearing sounds differently when they really aren't?

Lowena wrote:I've noticed that (...) /t/ sounds somewhat like /tʃ/, or maybe /ts̺/ which is like Basque's <ts>. Are these accurate, or is this another case of me hearing sounds differently when they really aren't?

You're probably right; New Zealand English quite often affricates /t/ to [ts̺̆] (the latter symbol stands for a short apico-alveolar [s]), I don't see why some Maori speakers wouldn't use this pronunciation. Especially given the fact that Maori /u/ moved from a back [u] to a central [ʉ] under the NZE influence...